Now that we have a five minute edit window, I keep seeing people having second thoughts and replacing their posts with a hasty “nevermind”. THERE IS NO SUCH FUCKING WORD*. Please forget about the Nirvana album of that name. The existence of that album does not make it a valid word. I don’t go around exclaiming “ummagumma” just because Pink Floyd decided to call one of their records that.
ummagumma…
If, however, you’re channeling Emily Litella, it is indeed spelled that way to convey that it’s basically one word, no pause, no breath.
Since I think I’m probably the poster who inspired this…
It’s just going down the path that many a compound word has before. “Base ball” merged sometime in the early 1920’s, tho I am sure there were a few old timers who raged against said change. Stand in the path of the tsunami if you must and decry its unstoppable momentum, but the rest of us will happily go with the flow.
[QUOTE=John DiFool]
It’s just going down the path that many a compound word has before. “Base ball” merged sometime in the early 1920’s, tho I am sure there were a few old timers who raged against said change. Stand in the path of the tsunami if you must and decry its unstoppable momentum, but the rest of us will happily go with the flow.
[/QUOTE]
I believe the word, or rather, words, you are looking for are: tsu and nami.
I’m always telling kids to refer to me by an anglo-saxon word which compounds ‘south’ and ‘settlement’. Should I stop?
I use that word alot, and nothing you can say will stop me.
[QUOTE=kaylasdad99]
I believe the word, or rather, words, you are looking for are: tsu and nami.
[/QUOTE]
[hijack]Do you study Japanese? You separated the kana the right way! The characters are 津(tsu) and 波(nami).[/h]
People get so inordinately snippy about minor matters of orthography. The spoken language, which is primary, doesn’t draw these distinctions, and how they are or aren’t represented in written language is frankly pretty arbitrary. That people don’t now or did once spell something with or without a space is such a piddling caprice of historical contingency; I have no idea how you can summon the emotion.
[QUOTE=Usram]
The existence of that album does not make it a valid word.
[/QUOTE]
Tell me, just who is the authority who decides what makes a valid word? I happen to think the words people use are the valid ones, but that’s just me.
[QUOTE=Autolycus]
[hijack]Do you study Japanese? You separated the kana the right way! The characters are 津(tsu) and 波(nami).[/h]
[/QUOTE]
Kanji. The kana would be tsu-na-mi: つ な み
What ever.
[QUOTE=John Mace]
Kanji. The kana would be tsu-na-mi: つ な み
[/QUOTE]
I mean she separated the kana into the appropriate kanji. He didn’t say “you mean the three words ‘tsu,’ ‘na,’ and ‘mi,’” or “you mean the two words ‘tsuna’ and ‘mi.’” We are both correct 
[QUOTE=jayjay]
If, however, you’re channeling Emily Litella, it is indeed spelled that way to convey that it’s basically one word, no pause, no breath.
[/QUOTE]
Cite?
I hear it as two words when Emily says it.
But it don’t make no nevermind.
[QUOTE=Autolycus]
I mean she separated the kana into the appropriate kanji. He didn’t say “you mean the three words ‘tsu,’ ‘na,’ and ‘mi,’” or “you mean the two words ‘tsuna’ and ‘mi.’” We are both correct
[/QUOTE]
You are correct now, with what you meant to say. 
[QUOTE=Usram]
I don’t go around exclaiming “ummagumma” just because Pink Floyd decided to call one of their records that.
[/QUOTE]
Odelay, Candy-O?
nm
According to dictionary.com, nevermind is a word.
You prescriptivists kill me.
Also: ummagumma was a slang word for intercourse. The Floyd didn’t just pull that out of their asses. So, feel free to run about screaming ummagumma. I know I will.
[QUOTE=DeadlyAccurate]
According to dictionary.com, nevermind is a word.
[/QUOTE]
Yup.
And I wouldn’t call dictionary.com an obscure dictionary reference.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/nevermind
Note that “older use”; I grew up saying, “It don’t make no nevermind.”
So it is a valid word, and I guess it’ll just have to be a valid word of which you personally happen to disapprove, along with all the other folks out there who have language pet peeves.
[QUOTE=DeadlyAccurate]
According to dictionary.com, nevermind is a word.
[/QUOTE]
Yes, the OP said as much.
But “nevermind”–per the dictionary–is a distinct word which does not mean the same thing as “never mind.”
eta: I am not a prescriptivist. I do have several prescriptions, however, some of which are preventative.
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